I'm getting married this October, and my fiance and I were discussing having an engagement party/wedding shower in July. We weren't planning to invite all of the wedding guests, mainly just immediate family, the bridal party, and a few closer friends. His sister had said it's common to have a wedding shower for gifts and then guests give cash for a gift at the actual wedding. I have never heard of this. Has anyone else done this? I kind of feel like it would be tacky to expect people to give a physical gift AND cash. We did agree it would be nice to get people together before the wedding to celebrate, though.
EDIT: Clarification: our mothers want to throw the party and we were discussing if we actually want it to be a "shower" or not as well as who would be invited, since I had never heard of a "wedding shower". We're not trying to throw a wedding party for ourselves.